Note: This post was updated at 12:30 p.m. EST)

US President Barack Obama makes a statement on the situation in Egypt on Feburary 1, 2011. TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images
Hosni Mubarak’s stubborn pride and imperious manner made change in Egypt personal, but he was right in his speech Thursday when he said it was not about him. It is about bringing about institutional and constitutional change that will embed and protect democratic and human rights for all of Egypt.
That means that after a day of celebrating Mubarak’s resignation, the protesters are cognizant enough that there is hard and important work to be done. And that means President Obama still has one more chance to do what’s right for Egypt and for the United States.
Human rights activists and the Egyptian protesters have been rightly disappointed so far in his muddled and wavering message and policy. His call for an “orderly transition” to democracy has been met by Mubarak with stinging rebukes and excuses for further delays.
If one is inclined to have some sympathy for the administration, you can point to this: For 30 years, every American president has known the day when payment for compliance with the region’s autocrats would come due. Each has at best hoped that they could delay that day to the next president.
Obama is that next president and reversing that history and making it right requires change of our own. It is up to him to stand up to the Washington army of paid hacks and Mubarak retainers who whisper caution, to the other allies in the region who fear change and to the wise men, serious-thinking pundits and religious leaders who see Arab democracy as a phony front for a global caliphate.
Amnesty International’s Human Rights Agenda for Change provides a guide for what he needs to do. He should make a clear statement that the window for delay has gone, and only specific and immediate action, not promises for down the road will be acceptable.
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